...' Academy ol Management Executive, 2002, Vol. 16, No. 4 Four Seasons goes to Paris floger HalloweU, David Bowen, and Carin-Isabel Knoop Europe is different from North America, and Paris is very different. I did not say difficult. I said diffeient. —A senior Four Seasons manager Executive Summary Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts opened its first French property in 1999. This article presents that opening as a case study to illustrate a perspective on how a company with a strong and highly successful organizational culture might approach a new national culture when that cuhure is both distinct and intense, as is the case in France. Managers can henefit from the case by understanding this approach to organizational and national culture, which the authors believe represents a useful framework for global management. The article begins with a discussion of the linkage between corporate cuifure and competitive advantage for service organizafions. It then describes the corporate support structure and the philosophy that Four Seasons developed over two decades to support its international expansion and to manage the type of challenges its French property posed. Finally, it describes how the firm went about transforming that property into one of its crown jewels. The Linkage Between Service Culture and Competitive Advantage The enduring success of service organizations such as Southwest Airlines, The Walt Disney Company, Wal-Mart, and USAA (among others) is frequently ...
Words: 13427 - Pages: 54
...Acknowledgments ix Acknowledgments This book owes a great deal to the mental energy of several generations of scholars. As an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town, Francis Wilson made me aware of the importance of migrant labour and Robin Hallett inspired me, and a generation of students, to study the African past. At the School of Oriental and African Studies in London I was fortunate enough to have David Birmingham as a thesis supervisor. I hope that some of his knowledge and understanding of Lusophone Africa has found its way into this book. I owe an equal debt to Shula Marks who, over the years, has provided me with criticism and inspiration. In the United States I learnt a great deal from ]eanne Penvenne, Marcia Wright and, especially, Leroy Vail. In Switzerland I benefitted from the friendship and assistance of Laurent Monier of the IUED in Geneva, Francois Iecquier of the University of Lausanne and Mariette Ouwerhand of the dépurtement évangélrlyue (the former Swiss Mission). In South Africa, Patricia Davison of the South African Museum introduced me to material culture and made me aware of the richness of difference; the late Monica Wilson taught me the fundamentals of anthropology and Andrew Spiegel and Robert Thornton struggled to keep me abreast of changes in the discipline; Sue Newton-King and Nigel Penn brought shafts of light from the eighteenthcentury to bear on early industrialism. Charles van Onselen laid a major part of the intellectual foundations on...
Words: 178350 - Pages: 714
